Six dogs dead, tyres slashed in N. Lantau village dispute

Police have arrested a 45-year-old villager who allegedly slashed his neighbours’ bicycle tyres after six of his dogs died from poison.

The villager, surnamed Cheng, was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage. He is said to have had a series of arguments with his neighbours in San Tau, a coastal village opposite Chek Lap Kok Island, about 4 kilometres west of Tung Chung.

When Cheng’s wife fed their dogs congee early yesterday morning, one of them immediately began to vomit and convulse, HK01 reported. It died shortly after, followed by five others in quick succession. Two others are missing.

SPCA staff visited the village yesterday morning and confirmed the dog deaths were a result of poison.

Mrs Cheng with her dogs (HK01 screenshot)

Mrs Cheng said her husband was an indigenous villager who had moved back to San Tau about a year ago. But the couple had felt targeted by the villagers.

Just two days ago she had been woken by dogs barking at 4am. She found one of dog injured but had also encountered a neighbour with a torch near their home. “I wondered why he was wandering near our home at that early hour,” she said.

But unnamed villagers told HK01 that Cheng wasn’t popular in the village and had threatened his neighbours with knives and broken their windows. Before he and his wife moved in, the village was peaceful, they said.

Due to the poor relationship between Yin and its neighbors, the police were called to the village almost every week. said: “We are so anxious we have even installed closed-circuit television and new gates,” one said.